An Over-the-phone Sales Pitch for a “Discount Electric Service”

Abstract

Somebody working for a firm whose named sounded an awful lot
like that of a major generating company called me up:
Caller: I’m from ________ Energy. We’re offering discount electric ser-
vice. Would you like to sign up?
Me: What kind of discount? Who owns your company? Could you send
me the information by mail?
Caller: ... (silence) ... Well, we don’t do that. We offer a discount... I’ll
get my supervisor.
Supervisor: Hello. I understand that you’d like to sign up for our dis-
count electric service.
Me: No. I’d like to know who you are first, and I’d like to find out how
big the discount is. Why don’t you send me the information?
Supervisor: Well, the truth is that you won’t save much money signing
up with us. You can get information on suppliers from Con Edison.
Me: Oh?
Supervisor: (Hangs up.)
It’s no wonder that electric power retailing has been such a colossal
failure.
Who are these supposed retailers?
What is their business proposition?
A discount on what?